In an alternate future, the last remaining X-Men fight giant and deadly tenth generation sentinels. The team consists of Wolverine, Emma Frost (who now goes by Diamondheart), Graymalkin and Anole. Despite there being only six mutants left in the world, according to Wolverine, Donald Pierce still won’t let them live in peace and has manufactured these sentinels himself.
In present day, the Young X-Men battle another sentinel in a training session. On the sidelines, Ink asks why he’s not down there with the team, to which Moonstar and Sunspot tells him that his new Phoenix tattoo is still untested. Moonstar tells Ink that his new powers must be tested “very, very carefully.”
As the Young X-Men fight, Rockslide asks Cipher what her invisibility and phasing powers can contribute to a fight like this but is interrupted when Dust collapses. The team races over to her aid as Moonstar shuts down the training session.
Sooraya says that she’s fine and walks away, not wishing for the others to know of her cellular degradation condition, which is causing her entire body to transform into glass and has now spread to her face.
Dusts pays Donald Pierce a visit in his cell and thinks over his offer of assisting her if she helps him escape his confinement. Pierce tries to convince her by telling her that not he is being held there illegally and, if she wanted to die in the service of an illegal group, she’d probably have stayed in Afghanistan. When Dust says that every murder he commits will be on her hands, Pierce assures her that he will be freed eventually regardless of her help and the only question is whether she’ll be alive to see the day.
In the medical bay, Beast informs Cyclops, Sunspot and Moonstar of Dust’s system-wide cellular degradation caused from the process of turning into glass and then back to sand again and that he’s unable to stop it. Sunspot asks him why he’s just telling them now and Beast tells him that he can get kicked out of the A.M.A for telling them at all because of doctor/patient confidentiality. Cyclops refuses to accept that she can’t be cured but is interrupted when an alert is sounded, indicating a security breach in confinement cell 15, which is where Pierce is being held.
As Pierce and Dust run to the hangar, Dust tells him that, although she has security clearance, the security system must be capable of tracking his movements directly. She reminds him that the X-Jets will only work with the proper access code, so if he means on betraying her, it better be after he no longer needs the jet. Pierce feigns hurt feelings as they run into Cyclops, Beast, Sunspot, Moonstar and Wolverine in the hangar bay.
In the alternate future, the X-Men return to Xaviera, a sovereign island nation that was chartered as an independent state for mutants but has fallen into despair as mutants died off without new ones to take their place. Immediately upon arrival, Emma pays a visit to Ink, who she still holds out hope for despite him being seemingly brain-dead.
Back in the present, Dust begins to cry as she apologizes to the X-Men for her betrayal. Beast tells her that they’ll figure out a way to help her but Pierce denies that he could, unless they’ve been holding out on her. Dust acknowledges the fact that Pierce may be her only chance but refuses to attack her friends for it and flays the skin from Pierce’s face using her sand form. Enraged, Pierce responds by screaming “That is the very last time you do that to me!”
At the Young X-Men’s headquarters in a San Francisco Cathedral, Cipher informs the others that Pierce has escaped and has Sooraya captive. The team immediately takes off to help.
Cyclops, Beast, Sunspot and Wolverine hold their own against Pierce as Moonstar helps Dust, who seems to be having trouble maintaining her sand form.
In the alternate future, Wolverine helps himself to a beer and is visited by a woman he has not seen in a long time. Wolverine knows why the woman is there and doesn’t offer any resistance against what she’s about to do. Instead, he simply wants to know why she’s doing it. The woman tells him that he killed her or rather let her die. “Get bent, sweetheart,” are Wolverine’s final words before his skin is flayed from his bones, leaving only his adamantium skeleton remaining.
The Young X-Men arrive to join the fight against Pierce but the anti-mutant cyborg continues to put up a solid fight, despite Wolverine claiming they can handle him. Moonstar interrupts the battle by declaring that Dust is dead as she holds the young mutants’s lifeless glass/sand body in her arms.
